Original Postal is usually pretty fun to return to, just to see how edgy the game was for the time (not to mention the borderline fever-dream of this game releasing on the Nintendo Switch). Postal isn't excellent, but this updated port from 2017 helps improve the controls, which is always a good thing.

Overall, Postal is a fine twin-stick shooter that was primarily marketed on its blatant edginess; a good game came out as an end result, but it's nothing too stellar besides its "impact" on the industry at the time.

"Simple, Mindless Murder..."

POSTAL must have been a very controversial game back in 1998 when it released, because it still remains a very disturbing and violent game. There is a heap of dark and demonic imagery paired with a jarring, industrial-focused soundtrack that will have player's heads pumping with blood. The gameplay revolves around "purging" areas of people, which essentially boils down to killing innocent civilians and armed police/military (a.k.a. "going postal"). While playing, I definitely felt a sense of wrongdoing despite me achieving the goals the game set out for me to complete, which is definitely an interesting thing that the game achieves.

However, I also found this game to be incredibly repetitive and boring after not even an hour of playtime. The game frontloads all of its weapons to you very early on, and none of the weapons really pack any real "punch". Enemy AI is abysmal, level design becomes similar as the game progresses, and there is a lack of any real story during its short 2+ hour runtime.

The game plays like a standard twin-stick shooter, with the player swapping between weapons/grenades on the fly. While my playthrough was extremely easy to complete, I wouldn't want to play again on a harder difficulty since the combat became boring for me. With a friend, the game gets marginally better, but it also takes away a bit of the "accomplishment" of single-handedly eradicating an entire town full of people.

Also, while the visuals are dark and gloomy (which fits the game's theme), they don't look very eye catching, and many things blend together. This makes many levels feel indistinct from one another, and made the short playthrough feel much longer in the worst of ways.

Despite its many flaws, Postal can still provide a player some fun for a cheap price. Its a nice game to turn your brain off to, though sometimes it feels like its too simplistic for its own good. I can Recommend it to someone looking for a short power-tripping experience where morality is of no question, but it plays like your everyday twin-stick shooter regardless.

Final Verdict: 6/10 (Above Average)

This might be a hard review, Postal is the kind of game you should play behind closed doors, not to be judged by your peers.
In hindsight, how different is the original Postal from say, Cruelty Squad or Hotline Miami, fans of both games might enjoy their post-ironic, gritty, dark, and action-packed counterparts - not for the faint of heart. Postal's premise isn't that farfetched: go Postal to your heart's content, until stopped - or not - by Police forces. Everyone's got beef against someone or something at some point; Postal is the devil on your shoulder personified, indulging you in murder porn. The game transgressed the video game culture of the 90s and early 2000s, part of a counterculture sowing panics in the likes of Jack Thompson and other conservative think tanks.

There's no doubt that Postal: Redux is the penultimate Postal game - or version of Postal. The 1997 classic is remade from the ground up in Unreal Engine 4, features new quality of life improvements that fans of the originals will surely appreciate.
The original Postal runs natively in 640x480 resolution and there was no option in a menu to change resolution. While Redux has been updated with widescreen support, the game doesn't feature the 4:3 aspect ratio found in the 1997 original.
Also added to Postal: Redux is a no-hassle native controller support. The game is otherwise quite faithful to the original, now with a few sensitivity changes, victims aren't quite as vocal as in the original, and retconned from the original is the elementary school, now understandably replaced with a funeral. Added into Redux is the co-op feature, players can now bring a friend to the rampage, the game doesn't offer any insensitive for real "cooperation" gameplay, but now allows players to experience Postal together.

Postal Redux can be a blast, and while playing it is maybe going to put me on the list of some government agencies, it's worth it.

very......................... Inspiring

jk ahaa

or am i 😈

yes, just a jest

A pretty solid twinstick shooter with a few issues. It's got a lot of weapon and enemy variety that keeps the game fresh for it's short runtime. There were a few instances of getting shot right when the map started or from off screen, which was annoying. The game's difficulty and structure encourages slow, methodical combat. That makes sense, but it makes a few maps drag. I'm a bit mixed on the game's tone. Each level starts with a diary entry from the protagonist. These quotes differ based on if you're playing on normal or hard. Normal mode makes the protagonist seem a bit more simplistically evil, while hard more aptly fits the horror tone in my eyes. The ending is pretty unnerving, but some other horror elements feel a bit tryhard. It's solid.

Despite it's very intense asthetic, Postal 1 is a surprisingly casual top-down shooter. While there isn't unlockables in oodles this game has a very similar appeal to something like Tony Hawk's Pro-Skater, where you play the game in your free time for fun or generally to just beat whatever score you set in the past. The controls are very tight as well, though I realize how this game was probably designed with a controller in mind in hindsight, being that it is a twinstick shooter. I found myself flicking around a little too quickly in tight situations which required me to rotate my character more carefully.

As for the narrative, I liked it a lot for what it was. That being almost non-existant. You don't need to know the past of the aptly named "Postal Dude"; instead, what matters here more is the present moment the player finds him in. There's speculative aspects one could derrive from the dialouge given to them between levels in the form of brief journal entries, and ultimately I think the distorted view the main character has of the world provides an eerie narrative for an already chilling game. The Postal Dude is detached from reality and truly believes himself to be somehow rightous in all of this. The world around him corrupted and unpure, and the only person who can right this is him alone. Sure, it all teeters on gross and edgy, but I'm willing to give Postal 1 a pass on this given the era this game came from. The late 90's were very much a time for people to create things akin to this. The 90's had already given us properties such as the comic book series 'Spawn', the classic film 'Seven', & even the cult classic first-person shooter 'Blood' (which is referenced in Postal 1 if I'm not mistaken).

I think the only thing I found off-putting about Postal 1 was its lack of actual music during gameplay. There is hints of it throughout inside buildings, however the game seems to want to leave the player in a moment where the only "soundtrack" to be heard is carnage in the moment. To quote Mr. Kanye West: "Screams from the haters got a nice ring to it. I guess every superhero need his theme music"

So, to cap this all off nice and proper, Postal 1 does a damned good job of making a great first impression. It's very much a fanastically edgy experience I'd like to suggest to anyone looking for a properly dark & violent video game.

Upsides over the original: It now plays more optimally. Updated visuals make keeping track of the situation way easier, the impact of the shooting feels stronger, the addition of coop is nice, and everything overall is smoother. You can finally see silhouettes of characters behind buildings.

Downsides over the original: Try as the game might to be faithful to the original game's presentation (and to give it credit, it is very faithful), it still feels a bit softened, not as transgressive or "dangerous" as the original, like something you weren't supposed to be playing. Which I felt was the whole point of Postal 1.